Dissociable mechanisms underlying individual differences in visual working memory capacity

Gulbinaite, Rasa; Johnson, Addie; Jong, Ritske de; Morey, Candice C.; Rijn, Hedderik van

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.05.060

Cited by 55 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…This finding may suggest that selective attention not only supports VSTM during encoding, but also plays an important role in preserving VSTM contents during VSTM maintenance. Moreover, it corroborates previous findings showing that attention can filter irrelevant perceptual information by modulating sensory activity 4, 7, 14 , and reveals that such sensory modulations persist during post-perceptual stages of VSTM, i.e., during maintenance of stored information. This may suggest that retention of information and attending to information rely on shared neural populations or mechanisms in sensory regions 26, 29, 31, 33 , in line with the sensory recruitment account of VSTM 10 .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…We had also expected to find effects of attention on the fundamental frequency component of the SSVEP 14, 50 . It is possible that we did not observe effects of our attentional manipulation on the fundamental SSVEP response because the SSVEPs were generated by flickering placeholders around the stimulus locations (see Figure 1a) instead of flickering stimuli presented at the stimulus locations themselves.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Interestingly, reliance on these attentional mechanisms has been shown to vary across individuals as a function of working memory capacity (WMC). While high working memory capacity (WMC) individuals simultaneously enhance sensory processing of relevant information and suppress processing of distracting information, low WMC individuals exhibit impaired distractor suppression, and primarily enhance processing of relevant sensory information 13, 14 . Studies on attentional selection in the context of VSTM have reported a similar pattern: high VSTM capacity individuals are generally more efficient at suppressing distracting information compared to low VSTM capacity individuals 1, 6 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Protecting visual short-term memory during maintenance: Attentional modulation of target and distractor representations

Vissers

Gulbinaite

Bos

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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In the presence of distraction, attentional filtering is a key predictor of efficient information storage in visual short-term memory (VSTM). Yet, the role of attention in distractor filtering, and the extent to which attentional filtering continues to protect information during post-perceptual stages of VSTM, remains largely unknown. In the current study, we investigated the role of spatial attention in distractor filtering during VSTM encoding and maintenance. Participants performed a change detection task with varying distractor load. Attentional deployment to target and distractor locations was tracked continuously by means of Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials (SSVEPs). Analyses revealed that attention strongly modulated the amplitude of the second harmonic SSVEP response, with larger amplitudes at target compared to distractor locations. These attentional modulations commenced during encoding, and remained present during maintenance. Furthermore, the amount of attention paid to distractor locations was directly related to behavioral distractor costs: Individuals who paid more attention to target compared to distractor locations during VSTM maintenance generally suffered less from the presence of distractors. Together, these findings support an important role of spatial attention in distractor filtering at multiple stages of VSTM, and highlight the usefulness of SSVEPs in continuously tracking attention to multiple locations during VSTM.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Protecting visual short-term memory during maintenance: Attentional modulation of target and distractor representations

Vissers

Gulbinaite

Bos

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

Self Cite

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“…In a flanker task, distracter suppression might consist of anticipatory attenuation of distracter-related activity before stimulus onset (Gulbinaite et al, 2014). Instantiation of proactive distraction-filtering on each trial, however, is costly for cognitive control, and may require some extra motivational incentives (such as reward) to be engaged (Marini et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orchestrating Proactive and Reactive Mechanisms for Filtering Distracting Information: Brain-Behavior Relationships Revealed by a Mixed-Design fMRI Study

et al. 2016

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Given the information overload often imparted to human cognitive-processing systems, suppression of irrelevant and distracting information is essential for successful behavior. Using a hybrid block/event-related fMRI design, we characterized proactive and reactive brain mechanisms for filtering distracting stimuli. Participants performed a flanker task, discriminating the direction of a target arrow in the presence versus absence of congruent or incongruent flanking distracting arrows during either Pure blocks (distracters always absent) or Mixed blocks (distracters on 80% of trials). Each Mixed block had either 20% or 60% incongruent trials. Activations in the dorsal frontoparietal attention network during Mixed versus Pure blocks evidenced proactive (blockwise) recruitment of a distraction-filtering mechanism. Sustained activations in right middle frontal gyrus during 60% Incongruent blocks correlated positively with behavioral indices of distraction-filtering (slowing when distractersmightoccur)andnegativelywithdistraction-relatedbehavioralcosts(incongruentvscongruenttrials),suggestingaroleincoordinating proactive filtering of potential distracters. Event-related analyses showed that incongruent trials elicited greater reactive activations in 20% (vs 60%) Incongruent blocks for counteracting distraction and conflict, including in the insula and anterior cingulate. Context-related effects in occipitoparietal cortex consisted of greater target-evoked activations for distracter-absent trials (central-target-only) in Mixed versus Pure blocks, suggesting enhanced attentional engagement. Functional-localizer analyses in V1/V2/V3 revealed less distracter-processing activity in 60% (vs 20%) Incongruent blocks, presumably reflecting tonic suppression by proactive filtering mechanisms. These results delineate brain mechanisms underlying proactive and reactive filtering of distraction and conflict, and how they are orchestrated depending on distraction probability, thereby aiding task performance.

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“…We focused on theta (4–8 Hz) oscillatory activity over medial frontal cortex (MFC), which has been associated with cognitive control processes (Hanslmayr et al, 2008; Cavanagh et al, 2009; Nigbur et al, 2011; Cohen and Donner, 2013; Cohen and Ridderinkhof, 2013). Both theta power over MFC and phase synchronization with lateral prefrontal sites has been shown to reflect trial-by-trial cognitive control demands and predict RTs during response-conflict tasks (Cohen and Cavanagh, 2011; Cohen and Donner, 2013; Gulbinaite et al, 2014). Due to the novelty of our approach, we also characterized the basic oscillatory interactions between MFC and parietal areas during the Simon task.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fronto-parietal network oscillations reveal relationship between working memory capacity and cognitive control

Gulbinaite

Rijn

Cohen

2014

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Executive-attention theory proposes a close relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and cognitive control abilities. However, conflicting results are documented in the literature, with some studies reporting that individual variations in WMC predict differences in cognitive control and trial-to-trial control adjustments (operationalized as the size of the congruency effect and congruency sequence effects, respectively), while others report no WMC-related differences. We hypothesized that brain network dynamics might be a more sensitive measure of WMC-related differences in cognitive control abilities. Thus, in the present study, we measured human EEG during the Simon task to characterize WMC-related differences in the neural dynamics of conflict processing and adaptation to conflict. Although high- and low-WMC individuals did not differ behaviorally, there were substantial WMC-related differences in theta (4–8 Hz) and delta (1–3 Hz) connectivity in fronto-parietal networks. Group differences in local theta and delta power were relatively less pronounced. These results suggest that the relationship between WMC and cognitive control abilities is more strongly reflected in large-scale oscillatory network dynamics than in spatially localized activity or in behavioral task performance.

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Dissociable mechanisms underlying individual differences in visual working memory capacity

Cited by 55 publications

References 78 publications

Protecting visual short-term memory during maintenance: Attentional modulation of target and distractor representations

Protecting visual short-term memory during maintenance: Attentional modulation of target and distractor representations

Orchestrating Proactive and Reactive Mechanisms for Filtering Distracting Information: Brain-Behavior Relationships Revealed by a Mixed-Design fMRI Study

Fronto-parietal network oscillations reveal relationship between working memory capacity and cognitive control

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